18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A transforming experience, beautifully articulated, March 29, 2003
This review is from: The Miracle of Death (Hardcover)
I have known Dr. Kovacs--Betty, of course to all those who know and love her--for--it will be forty years this fall. She has been a teacher to me and a guide. She is a great teller of stories--that ancient form of human expression that, along with myth and ritual, poetry and song, dance and music, speaks to us on a level more immediate than the verbal. That she leaves out mention of this form in her delineation on page six is perhaps a slip of modesty.
She has found her voice here in this wonderful and amazing recollection of a miracle that she experienced, recorded, transcribed, and now relates to us as the wise shaman of old often did around the prehistoric campfire, night after night, our faces warm, our eyes dancing with the flames, and our ears tuned to the voice of wisdom, mystery, experience, awe and spirituality.
"The Bard," as Betty calls this speaker, this charmer, this weaver of words--words that skip past the rational mind, dodge ordinary consciousness, to light into the very soul of the listener, is none other than herself, an expert on myth and culture telling us what was, what is and what will be, for herself, for those she loved and for those who loved her, and now for readers of this book. (A beautifully presented book, by the way, meticulously edited and artfully designed, clearly written, every word weighed and weighed again, and every sentence polished.)
Sometimes it is the smallest thing, a sudden rustle in the trees, the fall of rain out of a cloudless sky that awakens us to a realization of the extraordinary depth of things. In Zen this is seen as Enlightenment, something that comes and goes and comes again until perhaps we are ready and then it stays. With Betty, the Enlightenment was a supernova of sudden experience, the likes of which few of us ever encounter: the death of her mother in a car accident; and then a year later the death of her only, and much beloved, most beautiful son, also in an automobile accident; and then sixteen months later the death--still again in an auto accident--of her husband of over thirty years, the central love of her life, a man of extraordinary vitality and quiet wisdom, also my friend and guide.
Most people would not only give way to despair and depression, anger and a justifiable self-pity if in swift succession such events rained down like molten lead upon them. But Betty, always a teacher and an example, a guide and a person aware of herself as a spiritual being, gave way not to any of that, but turned what seemed on the surface to be something beyond horror into the most amazing transformation of love and creativity. Working with dream, symbol and myth, she saw and lived and breathed what she calls "The Miracle of Death," an enlightenment that flung open the doors of perception (always made opaque by the ordinary mind) to reveal a depth of Being beyond any ordinary comprehension of it.
"We do not die," says the Gita, and in this book we learn that death and life are but different sides of the same coin, inseparable, miraculous features of a balanced and dynamic cosmology in which the peace that passeth understanding becomes immediate if only we are open to it.
Being does not exist without non-being. How could it? And life does not exist without death. That is clear. But what Betty wants us to know is that death is merely another aspect of life. As her son Pisti (wise beyond his years) said to his father, "Dad, there is nothing but life."
In reading this book you may find, as I did, a resonance in Betty's theme of "denied realities" (p. 33) or "realities beyond the rational" (p. 108) suppressed by the ordinary consciousness of the Western world. Or you may find an accord in her debunking of the "myth of empty materialism" (p. 42) clung to by Western culture. Professor Kovacs sees the "material myth" as the cause of our disassociation from our spiritual selves evidenced by, among other things, wide spread pollution of all kinds. But she sees a transformation coming. Not a "new age" (she studiously avoids this overused phrase) but a planetary shift in consciousness.
Death is as Divine as Life.
Hold them in both hands, Kicsi.
Play with them.
Balance them.
This is the Divine Game.
--a found poem by Istvan Kovacs
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Brave New Vision, July 6, 2003
This review is from: The Miracle of Death (Hardcover)
There is Nothing but Life: to experience this essential truth is to experience the miracle of death, this premise is profound and its ramifications pave the way for an original framework for conceptualizing death suitable for the 21st century. "The Miracle of Death" begins with Kovacs' powerful moment, the call saying her son had been in an accident and that his condition is "very serious." Dr. Kovacs turns her grief into a lesson for all of us to be aware, trust in dreams, strive to understand artistic expression and to trust intuition. While the miraculously synchronized events that unfold in the book are unlikely to happen to all of us, the author uses events leading to death as tools to teach us how to recognize the language of both fate and coincidence. Kovacs deals with some of the most difficult topics humans ever encounter, with aplomb and resolve.
Dr. Kovacs' interpretations and analysis sometimes are weighed down by New Age jargon that masks underlying emotion, rendering the text difficult to penetrate. The author is most engaging when she falls back on her background in literature and writing, that is, when she delves into personal narrative. Kovacs personal accounts propel the reader to turn each page eagerly and as we move through the difficulties with her, respect for her courageous attitude mounts. Losing a child is something dreadful and unexpected but the author turns this and other equally horrific tragedies in her life into moments of inspiration, clarity, vision and even joy.
There is a unique blend of western and nonwestern thought in this book. Dr. Kovacs often reflects on the work of Carl Jung yet she also utilizes the Native American Medicine Wheel, Celtic Spirituality and Ancient Egyptian belief systems. Dr. Kovacs creates a fused modality of symbolic analysis, earth celebration and ritual; the outcome inspires personal healing and global transformation.
Kovacs work demonstrates that every event however erratic, unplanned or seemingly spontaneous, stems from a divine plan. The author shows how observations of art, dreams and intuition of all of the people in your circle can lift the shroud from the phenomena called death. Betty Kovacs message is one of hope-thankfully, she has passed the torch on to light the way for the rest of us.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE MIRACLE OF DEATH by Betty J. Kovacs, Ph.D., April 9, 2003
This review is from: The Miracle of Death (Hardcover)
THE MIRACLE OF DEATH by Betty J. Kovacs, Ph.D., Foreword by Anne Baring. Kamlak Center, Claremont, CA 91711-4716. 2003. appendices, notes, resources, bibliography, index.
Betty Kovacs uses her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Theory of Symbolic Language from the University of California at Irvine and position as member of the Board of Directors of the Jung Society of Claremont, CA, to understand the mystery and the tragedy of the death of her son Pisti. Kovacs' husband Istvan shared in the journey to a profound understanding of this momentous event in their lives. "The Miracle of Death" has much broader appeal than its apparent New-Age topic. It will draw as well readers interested in grieving and grief studies, women's memoirs, family studies, and psychological and spiritual journeys and quests. Kovacs cites historical and mythological studies, individual experiences surrounding death, and cutting-edge science to support a radical change in the way we think about death and life.
In the course of her revelations, Kovacs came to realize that her formal education and professional activity had imposed limitations on her understanding. She felt her customary ways of thinking and comprehending breaking down under the impact of her son's untimely death. Moving beyond her past experiences and learning, she became open to experiences and aspects of reality she had been blind to. A short passage of Christopher Fry quoted by Kovacs summarizes her journey and what she learned--"...there is an angle of experience where the dark is distilled into light...." Kovacs found that angle. In so openly, honestly, and sensitively relating her experience in assimilating the meaning of her son's death, Kovacs can also open the reader's life to ordinarily buried dimensions of existence and experience.
Henry Berry, book reviewer
The Small Press Book Review
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